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Sunday, March 20, 2011

The Columbus Dispatch on Proposed Changes to Education in Ohio

Public-school teachers are facing a multitude of changes that could diminish their pay checks, benefits and working conditions - among them Gov. John Kasich's proposed state budget, legislation overhauling Ohio's 27-year-old collective-bargaining law and plans to restore fiscal solvency to public-employee pension systems.

An Ohio public-school teacher's average salary is now about $57,000 for 182 official working days.

Among the changes that have been proposed:

• Cutting school funding $1.3billion over the next two years

• Increasing the pension contribution rate, which now is 10percent, by 2 percentage points to save money ($200 million statewide)

• Increasing the pension contribution rate by another 3 percentage points to give the pension system financial stability ($300 million statewide)

• Requiring teachers to pay at least 15 percent of their health-insurance cost (the average now is about 9 percent)

• Taking 15 sick days out of state law, making it a term of negotiation instead

• Limiting the number of unused sick days that can be built up and paid out upon retirement